June is a fantastic time in the garden everything is growing so fast its hard to keep up. Finally frosts are over and all the tender plants and veggies can be planted out for the rest of the summer, even Squashes can be outside now. Pity the weather isn't a bit kinder, if its wet and chilly where you are its best to delay planting bedding for another week or so. There is a lot to do in June and the Sunday Gardeners calendar has some helpful tips and advice, click on the link. Ideas for June in general, but its still best to consider local conditions and check the weather. The end of May is the traditional time for planting out, but bedding and veg plants grown under ideal conditions, warm, with just the right amount of water, and no blustering winds, can get a bit of shock if stuck outside on a typical bank holiday and sulk for a couple of weeks. Best to just wait until a better planting day.

June isn't always reliable, here a couple of years ago some bedding going in and yes the white stuff on the lawn is hailstones.

Growing tomatoes is great fun but time consuming as the plants need a lot of attention especially as the growing season goes on, which is why they are colour coded red Tomatoes are vigorous plants and even more so this season and are already mature enought to pot on into a larger container or grow bag for the rest of the season. If you haven't grown Tomatoes before how to tell when they are ready to pot on? The photos on the left are both ready; the single Tomato plant  looks self evidently too big for the pot, and top heavy. The other Tomato plants look bushy and mature and they too are ready.

I plant into a trough filled with the contents of a grow bag or good quality compost rather than direct into the grow bag. There are two advantages, firstly you can get better support for the plants with the greater depth of soil provided by a large container. It is hard to imagine now, looking at these plants, but they will be very tall, 1.5 m plus and heavy with fruit needing a lot of support. Secondly, for watering, often with a grow bag the water can run off the grow bag rather than drain into the plants. If you are using grow bags a good tip is to use wide tape to tape up the bag to make it more round and less flat where tomatoes are growing.

Plants will need attention on an increasing basis from now until the end of the season, nipping out the side shoots and regular watering and feeding. For more tips on growing tomatoes follow the link.

The warm weather means the garden is ahead of itself and gardeners even busier. Many favour the "Chelsea Chop" traditionally done at the end of May, (see link to May Calendar) and so named as it coincides with the famous Chelsea Flower show. 

"The Chop" is cutting back bushy herbaceous and perennial plants to make a sturdier plant which will flower later. You can cut some of the same plants back, and not others, to encourage staggered flowering, and even chop parts of the plant. There is every reason to do it earlier this year as plants are further through their growing cycle on account of the warm weather.

If you are growing on bedding plants under cover, a similar principle applies. I would recommend you pinch out the top growth and prevent them flowering. Firstly, save the plant's energy to start flowering in the greenhouse is nice but you want the long flowering season in the garden. By pinching out the top growth and the embryo flowers you will encourage the plant to be bushier and it will flower slightly later when in situ in the garden,

This is an ideal time to do this and whether chopping or pinching look for bushy perennials with multiple flower heads, Nepeta (cat mint) Sedums, Hardy geraniums, Asters are ideal but not suitable for this treatment are flowers with single flower heads such as Delphiniums, Peony, Clematis. Look for bushy plants and most bedding plants will benefit especially those with a tendency to go leggy as the seasons goes on such as verbena and petunia. 

May is a good time to plant out lettuce either small plants which are sold in the garden centres, or sow from seed directly where you want the lettuce to grow.

sow in a straight line so that when they germinate you can tell seeds from weeds, and thin out to prevent overcrowding. Pick the strongest seedlings and weed out the rest. Frost protection is needed, and a cloche is helpful to get the plants off to a good start. Water well because if the seedlings germinate and then are too dry, they will wither and die.

Beat the slugs

But, soon as the lettuce are there so are the slugs, nothing they like better than a dish of tender new lettuce and then can shred a row of lettuce overnight. Protect the new plants by any one of the favourite methods, organic pellets, grit, or beer traps. For more information on how to beat the slugs follow the link